Pine wood handles

[Damascus Mike]

Would a piece of pine tree wood make a good knife handle?i have alot of the stuff

[ThomasPowers]

Generally, no. Knife woods are often selected to be hard and oily to provide for long wearing use. Traditionally fruit woods, tropical hardwoods and whatever was the hardest wood handy was used.

Now days many people use woods that were not traditionally used; however they are often stablized with resins to make them harder and longer wearing. It also allows you to use pretty looking woods that perhaps would not take hard usage.

[chrisfrick]

Is it white pine, or yellow pine? BIG difference in hardness--white is really, really soft and the yellow (more common in the Southern U.S.) is much more durable--so durable/strong that it is used in anything from making ladders to flooring. IMO, yellow pine should be fine for a knife handle--you could also explore the option of getting it stabilized, too.

[Glenn]

There is a thread on the forum about using blue jeans for a knife handle. You may want to do a search for it. Not just cotton, but cotton and lots of epoxy.

[nett]

Old growth Kahikatea would be a suitable pine with it's very tight growth rings, but I understand the tree is on the endangers species list and you can't drop them without a permit. Perhaps you could score one of the old stumps that are being been harvested from the swamps.

[ThomasPowers]

Yellow pine tends to be resinous and sticky when warmed and handled too. I think DM is interested in NZ species rather than NA ones.

[Damascus Mike]

i dont really know what pine it is.um i know of a wood called Kouri and its very pritty wood when vanished,but it also is a tree thats not allowed to be droped/chopped down.
thanx for all the help guys DM

[matt87]

Judging from another thread, it seems you are interested in camping, hiking or some other outdoors activity. Is there any chance you can (morally and legally) collect wood from nature? A few bits of dead non-rotted roundwood will make for good whittle-tang knife handles, and if you're handy with a saw you can cut up scales. Letting it season before use is a good idea though.

[JamesBBrauer]

You might be able to cut it into roughly 1/8" strips, plane them to a consistent thickness, and make a lamination that would be durable. You could even stain/dye some of the middle laminations to give a little contrast, if you like that look. If you do go with a pine species, try to get wood from the near center of the log. Trees grow on the outside, so the interior cells will have harder (relative to pine) cell walls.

[Ross_FL]

I used quite a bit of pine when I re did the crown and base molding in my house, I live in Florida so I am assuming it was yellow pine, the hardest pine apparently.

I would not recommend this wood.

It was somewhat tough, but not hard at all, very easily dented and nails went through like butter.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Ross_FL
Spelling error.

[Damascus Mike]

Yes i do like camping,fishing and those things,i will probably just collect pieces of Rail road sleepers and use them,aparently they are very hard and have awesome colors when varnished or treated

[fat pete]

on a quick search it seems NZ has some really nice exotic woods....back here we would pay good money for them...you may think our wood is exotic..lol ....other mans trees are greener...lol

[Damascus Mike]

really?um is there any chance you can send me the link to those pages?thanx DM

[new guy]

mike go for oak or local hard woods. try somethinf. if it does nto work you will have some pratice. be creative.

[Damascus Mike]

ok ill try that

[Dodge]

D. Mike,
Try this: www.Google.com. Then type New Zealand native trees

[Damascus Mike]

k i will try that also

[Jim L.]

D. mike,

Have a look at the link about stabilizing. This should help, though I think most pines would be too soft.

Jim L.

[ThomasPowers]

Here railroad sleepers (RR ties) are usually softwood totally impregnated with creosote and would make a really really bad material for blade handles. In other countries they often use naturally rot resistant hardwoods---the sort of things that make very nice handle materials.

I have a colleague who has a coffee table made from Rhodesian RR sleepers that is quite lovely---if very heavy.

[element]

Pretty much any tree or srub that has leaves will work..

[thornforge]

Hey Mike.

I presume you are talking of plantation pine, ?? Or at best what is called here abouts 'Old Man Pine', the stuff in the firewood pile. Leave it there, it is where it belongs. You will find even the old northern hemisphere standby's such as oak and the fruitwoods are not so suitable when grown in NZ, especially on the west coast, as they grow way to fast and are hence quite soft.

NZ natives are some of the hardest and more spectacular woods around, and have much novelty value due to there not being much knowledge about them amongst the knifemakers of the world. As you are on the Wet Coast, you are in the heart of South Island native wood country, so you should have no trouble finding something.

Kauri is alright, but not much figure (stripey contrast).
Kahikatea is native 'white pine', again good, but not the best. Both can be found as demo wood from OLD buildings. Although most demo wood in your area will be Red Beech (great figure), totara or Rata, which just happens to be somewhere in the top 5 hardest woods of the world. It is quite oily and takes a wicked polish, though has almost no figure at all. The joy of demo wood is that it has been cured for up to 150 years, can't get much better than that.

Otherwise try Rewarewa, spectacular; Pepper tree, amazing colours; Manuka, tight grained, highly figured and you are surrounded by it; Black Maire (from the Nth Is) etc. Yes, google it for some pics. Here is a place to start Bushmans Friend: New Zealand Native Plants & Nature Walks - Photos Native Tree Wood & Timber - Photos, New Zealand, native,plants,native ...

Alot of these are perfectly allowable to cut, but NOT in the state forest. Find a local cocky with a stand of natives and go round with a 6 pack.